Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau speak after Carney won the race to become leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, in Ottawa, on March 9, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The government is considering restoring its High Commissioner to Canada, sources said, in signs that the exit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from office could signal a thaw in bilateral ties that have been virtually frozen since 2023 over the Nijjar case. Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS) chief Daniel Rogers is also set to visit India next week to attend a meeting of intelligence chiefs hosted by the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).
The meeting, which is held each year on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue (March 17-19), will be the first such meeting since a heated, extended exchange over the case between Indian and Canadian national security teams headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Canadian counterpart in Singapore last October.
According to the sources, the Ministry of External Affairs has discussed possible candidates to replace previous High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma, as the position remains vacant since he was expelled along with five Indian diplomats in October 2024, a few days after that Singapore meeting. The Trudeau government called them “persons of interest” in the June 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, but the Modi government denied all the charges, and claimed that no evidence has been shared of the claims, including those linking Home Minister Amit Shah to the plot.
New Delhi then withdrew its diplomats and expelled six Canadian diplomats including the Acting High Commissioner in retaliation. It is unclear whether a new Canadian High Commissioner to India will be appointed by newly elected leader of the Liberal party and Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney after he is sworn in in the next few weeks, or after Canadian federal elections are held later this year, but sources said “diplomatic movements” are already under way. In addition, both Mr. Carney and his Conservative Party rival Pierre Pollievre have indicated they would like to rework ties with India.
Last week Mr. Carney, a former Central Bank Governor, said there were “opportunities to rebuild relationships with India” as Canada diversifies trade ties in the wake of tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs. “There needs to be a shared sense of values around that commercial relationship [with India]. If I am Prime Minister, I look forward to the opportunity to build that,” he said at a public event in Calgary.
Some former diplomats from Delhi and Ottawa have met in the past few months for track-two discussions on how to rebuild ties that have skidded downhill since September 2023, when Mr. Trudeau announced in Parliament that Indian “government agents” were suspected to have orchestrated the killing of Nijjar outside a Gurudwara in Brampton. They have said Mr. Trudeau’s departure was an opportunity for the relationship.
“Given the existential crisis Canada faces from Trump, India has to be an important piece of Canada’s diversification strategy. The lowest hanging fruit is the speedy return of High Commissioners to both capitals,” said former High Commissioner to Canada Vikas Swarup.
Former Canadian diplomat David McKinnon, who served in Delhi, concurred, although he pointed out that the Nijjar case is now before the courts, and there would be some “twists and turns” in the trial that could still affect ties.
“There are real problems to be addressed by both sides, but with subtlety and sophistication. Given his background, I would like to think Mark Carney will be inclined to engage in international relations more thoughtfully and quietly. But he is completely untested in the political realm, of course, and he will be relying on much of the same party apparatus that served Justin Trudeau as leader,” he added.
Former High Commissioner to Canada and Pakistan Ajay Bisaria suggested that apart from the restoration of High Commissioners, working on a trade agreement, as well as an invitation from the new Canadian Prime Minister to India for the G-7 Summit to be hosted in Canada this year could be ways to take the relationship forward.
“Any new Prime Minister of Canada will have a natural opportunity to get off ramp from the current political deadlock with India and to stabilise the relationship… All this should become politically more attractive, given the broader geopolitical problems that Canada now has with the U.S. and China,” he added.
Published – March 10, 2025 10:09 pm IST